From the 'Church Finder' to Your Church

Right at this moment, four people are using the 'Church Finder' on crcna.org.

In a few minutes, someone else will begin their search. And another after that.

It's like this all day long as the "Church Finder" is one of the most popular pages on our website. We try to keep it that way, and make it as easy as possible for people searching the web to connect with your church, with my church, with all of our churches across Canada and the US.

I thought I'd share a few stats, knowing they aren't just stats. They are real people.

On a typical week, the Church Finder pages get almost 10,000 pageviews.

And what churches are they looking for? Yours! Within the last 30 days, our stats show that every church in the denomination was viewed by at least one person. On average, each church page was viewed 11 times in the past month.

And, no, they're not just members looking up their own church online. Many of these visitors come from search engines. Through a special grant, we're able to display a link to our Church Finder when people search online for 'find a church' and other common search queries. On average, 1,200 people per week come to our Church Finder through these special links. And from there, to your church page and then, we pray, through the doors of your church and my church. So the relationship can go from electrons, to real people sharing the love of Christ.

People are searching for a church home - literally. Let's pray that, this week and every week, they find a welcoming place that will richly bless them and all of us.